


Insecurities

by albusev



Series: Asuna and Kazuto one-shot collection [3]
Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:02:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24201010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/albusev/pseuds/albusev
Summary: What happens when Asuna starts to worry about all the flirtatious girls that surround Kazuto?
Relationships: Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna
Series: Asuna and Kazuto one-shot collection [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742830
Kudos: 42





	Insecurities

Asuna and Kazuto walked hand in hand away from Dicey Cafe in pure bliss. Asuna had been released from the hospital the day before after a long 3 weeks of therapy. She was not perfectly back to normal, but with a crutch, she was able to get around pretty well. Of course, it also helped that Kazuto was next to her to keep her steady. 

Kazuto had surprised Asuna this morning with a trip to Dicey to meet all their old friends from SAO. She was elated to see everyone again. For the most part, she was a bit embarrassed to allow too many people to visit her when she felt so weak during therapy, so she only let Rika and Kazuto visit her. Now that she was out and about, it was nice to be able to see everyone again. She even looked forward to school starting next week. It helped that she would be enrolling in the special SAO survival school, so she would be with people who knew what she went through, since they went through it herself. 

She turned to Kazuto and smiled, "Thanks for the surprise Kirito. It was nice to be able to see everyone again." 

"Of course Asuna! It was hard getting everyone to not mob your hospital room over the last few weeks." As he was speaking, he rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "Everyone wanted to see you. So I thought this would be the best way."

"I'm glad you were able to hold them off. I don't think I was ready to see everyone just then." She sealed her thanks with a small kiss on the cheek, raising a small flush on Kazuto's cheek. 

As Asuna moved her head back, a car horn sounded. The two looked up nervously, seeing Kazuto's aunt there to pick the young couple up. Kazuto really wanted to take Asuna to the cafe on his new motorcycle, but with her crutch, they decided it was probably not the best idea. 

Midori rolled down her window as the couple approached, and said "Hello love-birds. How was your meeting?" Asuna's cheeks became beet red at the mention of love birds, causing Kazuto to spring into action to defend her.

"Come on Midori. Why?!" 

"Hey, if its true its true! From what you both told me about your time in the game, you are indeed love-birds." Midori retorted with a smirk. Asuna had decided that she was not ready to talk to her parents about what happened in the game, especially because she knew that her mother did not approve of Kazuto, but they had decided to tell Midori and Suguha most of the story. They told them how they met, their early interactions, falling in love, almost dying at the hands of Kuradeel, their marriage, adopting Yui, beating Heathcliff, and some of the basics of their time in ALO (of course they left out much of what Sugou did). Asuna was so happy to have someone's support and Midori's was unconditional. Even though she was not Kazuto's mother, Asuna could tell how much she cared for her nephew/adopted son. Of course the marriage had been a bit of a shock, but when they assured her that they would not get married in the real world for some time, she accepted it. 

Kazuto and Asuna sat in the back of the car, still holding hands. Kazuto chose to sit in the middle seat in order to not be too far away from his girlfriend. The three talked about the get together as they made their way back to the Kirigaya residence. Asuna's parents had allowed her to go out for the day and spend the time with her friends. She had promised that she would come home after dinner, so they happily had a few hours left to be in each other's company. 

Midori looked in the rear view mirror and couldn't help but smile. She had been worried about Kazuto for some time. Since he found out that his parents had died and she was actually his aunt, and Suguha was his cousin, he had retreated into himself. During the time he was in a coma, stuck in SAO, she worried constantly over what she could have done differently; she partially blamed herself for the predicament he found himself in. After he awoke, she was hopeful that he would change, but if anything he got worse. He sulked and didn't eat. Those first few days in the hospital where he refused to attend physical therapy were almost worse than when he was stuck in the game. When she learned about Asuna (Kazuto did not share much, but she overheard a small conversation with the government contact who helped him find her) she understood why his mood had worsened. He then became determined and made a quick recovery, only to once again hit a stumbling block when it became apparent that Asuna had not awoken. Looking at the two of them now, she was overjoyed. Kazuto was happy and acting like a young teenage boy should. He had friends, a girlfriend, and drive. Of course, as a mother figure, she would always worry for her children, but she had calmed considerably, knowing that he would be alright. He had someone to care for, and care for him. 

After the car pulled into the driveway, the three went into the house and took their shoes off in the front room. The young couple proceeded upstairs, Kazuto, ever the gentleman, helping Asuna up the stairs with her crutch. 

Asuna and Kazuto entered Kazuto's bedroom and he proceeded to slide the door closed while Asuna took a seat on the bed, laying her crutch down on the floor. Kazuto joined her and took her hand. The two looked at each other for what felt like an eternity. All the sudden, Kazuto noticed that Asuna's eyes began to water as tears prepared to fall down her cheeks. 

Kazuto cupped Asuna's cheeks in his hands and pleaded, "Whats wrong Asuna? I thought you really enjoyed the get together, did I do something wrong?" His mind went into overdrive as he tried to figure out what he had done to upset her. 

Asuna looked into his eyes and shakily spoke, "Kirito, I am just worried..." she tried to continue, but was overtaken with sobs. Kazuto immediately responded by taking her in his arms and rubbed her back, hoping to calm her down. After a few moments, Asuna backed up a bit so that they could look at each other. 

"Why are you worried Asuna? What can I do to help?" Kazuto said, his tone tinged with pleading, wanting nothing more than to help her by lessening her suffering. 

"Um... Kirito, I-I just don't like how flirtatious Rika and Keiko are with you. You don't really say anything when they make their comments, or get really close to you. You just become flushed and move on. I know I am just being crazy, but it just hurts me. I become afraid that you reciprocate their feelings and will leave me." It took her a few minutes to conclude her thought, as she had to periodically stop to wipe tears from her eyes. 

Kazuto immediately became despondent. He couldn't believe he had been so dumb. He knew that the two girls liked to tease, and he was pretty sure they had some form of crush on him, but he had thought if he just ignored it they would stop. He had also tried to make it very clear that he was with Asuna, but he realized how mistaken he had been.

"Asuna. I... I am so sorry. I don't know what to say." He paused and wiped the new tears that had collected on Asuna's face before taking her hands in his. "I cannot believe that I caused you harm. I thought if I would just ignore them they would stop. You know how bad I am with this kind of thing. Next time they do something I will say something." 

"It's okay Kirito. I know how you are. Like I said, I think I was just overthinking. There was so many new things hitting me all at once after getting out into the real world, I just went into panic mode. I know you would never do anything, and I know how you feel about me." She gave him a quick peck on the lips in hopes of calming his fears, but after she backed her head away, she saw the look of resolve on his face had not calmed. 

"Asuna, did you notice when we were there, no one else called me Kirito? And if someone did, I got mad at them?" he questioned.

Asuna paused for a moment, thinking back to their time at the cafe. "Y-yes. I guess I do... But wait! I keep calling you Kirito and you never say anything to me."

"Yes. That's because while in game still I may be Kirito, in real life, I want to be myself. My time in SAO taught me that my old dream to escape into the virtual world was one sided. You need a balance between the two. So it is important that I have a real life to return to, but with you, its different. We met and fell in love in the game and still love each other in real life. I do not want to separate that part of my life. I want to be with you in both. And so I don't give you a hard time when you call me Kirito outside of the game, since as long as we are together, I don't care! I don't want our lives bifurcated between the virtual and real." 

Asuna was touched by his declaration and reached one of her hands up to caress his cheek. "Oh Kirito, you are so sweet! And you said that you are bad with these kinds of things! You are quite smooth." 

Kazuto added with a smirk, "Plus, it is so cute when you say Kirito, it is like music to my ears."

This addition resulted in a slap on the shoulder, followed by "Stop trying to be funny, less you ruin what you just said!

Little did the couple know that Suguha was standing outside the door during this conversation. She had come up to ask them a question, and was just about to knock when she heard Asuna start crying. She did not mean to eavesdrop, but found herself frozen in place at the sound. After they finished the conversation and started talking about something else, she decided against knocking and went into her room.

* * *

She paced back and forth in her room while she thought '*Wow. I hadn't even thought about how those flirtatious actions could hurt Asuna.'* Even though she was still working through her own feelings for her cousin, she knew that she had to do something to help the two of them. She could see the way they looked at each other and nothing deserved to get in their way, especially not the other girls' flirtatious actions. 

In the aftermath of helping her cousin rescue Asuna, she had become close to her cousin again, and he introduced her to his SAO friends and even took her to some meetups while Asuna was still in the hospital. So she decided that she would reach out to Rika and Keiko. She sent the two a text asking for them to meet her in a cafe in ALO so they could talk. She would not let them risk the only happiness her cousin had known in years!


End file.
